The Race Factor: Will Obama's race have an impact on the outcome of election 2008? This is one of the most discussed and debated questions of this cycle. With Obama as the first African-American candidate to head the national ticket of any major party, the issue remains on the table. A new CNN/Opinion Dynamics poll suggests that the candidate's race may not matter as much as some have feared. CNN's analysis of the results suggests that Obama may, in fact, gain as many votes because of his race as he loses, because some pro-Obama African-American respondents also maintain that race does matter in their decision. For the full CNN analysis click here.